The idea of being a show runner was very attractive to me, to create and control something.

I made True Detective like it was going to be the only thing I ever made for television. So put in everything and the kitchen sink. Everything.

The work is where I tend to feel pressure - not so much in the reaction to it.

I've found that all weak people share a basic obsession - they fixate on the idea of satisfaction. Anywhere you go men and women are like crows drawn by shiny objects. For some folks, the shiny objects are other people, and you'd be better off developing a drug habit.

You just do the best you can, and when you're able to connect with people, and when you do, it's just incredibly gratifying.

I find the constraints of drama actually freeing: It brings everything down to character and action.

And if we’re talking about hard-boiled detectives, too, what could be more hardboiled than the worldview of Ligotti or Cioran? They make the grittiest of crime writers seem like dilettantes. Next to The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, Mickey Spillane seems about as hard-boiled as bubble gum.